As I have written before, Hawaii is the most liberal state in the U.S. . Although Hawaii has only four electoral votes to cast for President of the United States - a small number of votes - they could potentially be mighty in their impact.
Hawaii has a role to play as the progressive movement is frantically attempting to pull our country back from the edge of the abyss of fascism, and ecological suicide; as well as, wanting to head off the start of more disastrous endless wars.
There are many spokes in the wheel of change - fighting in the streets, in the courts, in the legislatures, in the media, etc., etc. . An aspect of that is what Former President Bill Clinton liked to call “triangulation”. Bill Clinton ran, and governed, as a conservative Democrat. When dealing with the right-wing Newt Gingrich “Republican Revolution” in ‘94, Bill would point over to the liberals in the Senate and say, “I’m reasonable compared to all those liberals in the Senate”. Then he'd go to the Senate and the left pressure groups and say, “Hell, those Republicans in the House will do all sorts of crazy things, if you don’t take the deal I’m giving you. I’m the reasonable guy here” The public bought it, and the left capitulated after having lost 3 presidential contests in a row - badly.
Bernie Sanders’ run for the Democratic nomination changed the dominant paradigm by inserting a solid progressive agenda back into the national discussion and conscious - even while the Republican agenda has gone so far to the right that it is now reaching the end of the political spectrum with the fascists and theocrats -perhaps falling off the spectrum even. Just picture the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un, and the President of Exxon-Mobile Corporation Rex Wayne Tillerson all agreeing more with each other than with anyone else, and then forming their own political party - with maybe Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Russian President Vladimir Putin would be the wild-eyed left flank of the party.
Currently, barring dramatic unforeseen circumstances, Sanders, and his proposed policies will no longer be part of the highly visible national presidential contest from here on out. Silenced if you will - except for some massive protests, marches, and event disruptions, maybe. Green Party candidate Jill Stein will be excluded from the televised debates unless she can get from her current 7% in the latest CNN poll up to 15% in 5 straight polls, according to the rules of the Commission on Presidential Debates - and arm of the Republicans and Democrats to keep out third parties.
But what Hawaii can do is simple: vote for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Giving her our 4 electoral votes, and sending a shot across the Democrat's bow, that unless they return to being a party by, for, and of, the 99%, more states could follow Hawaii’s lead in years to come. That would triangulate against the neo-fascist theocratic corporate end of our current political spectrum. And that cannot happen too many times, in too many places, in too many ways at this late juncture in mankind’s history.
And before the hair-on-fire paid Hillary trolls start raising mayhem about Hawaii throwing the election to Trump, everyone should take a deep breath, exhale, repeat -and maybe have a little chamomile tea too, because frankly, if Hillary is worried about the loss of Hawaii in a race with Donald Trump (who she has no excuse not to landslide) she’s got way bigger problems than losing Hawaii to Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. Heck, she could even lose Vermont too, and Donald Trump would in all statistical likelihood still not defeat her. And just as an aside, states like Utah, Arizona, and Maine may just decide to vote for Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson instead of Trump - but that’s another blog for another day.
Arguably, having Stein competitive in states with Johnson, blocking his electoral votes, may become of paramount importance if Hillary screws up and can’t secure the majority of the electoral college votes.
In any event, Hawaii needs to lead the nation in the right direction, because if it doesn’t no one else will (with all due respect to our comrades in Vermont).